Indian Ocean

American  

[in-dee-uhn oh-shuhn] / ˈɪn di ən ˈoʊ ʃən /

noun

1. an ocean south of Asia, east of Africa, and west of Australia, with its deepest section in the Java Trench. 27,243,268 square miles (70,560,000 square kilometers).

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Indian Ocean British  

noun

1. an ocean bordered by Africa in the west, Asia in the north, and Australia in the east and merging with the Antarctic Ocean in the south. Average depth: 3900 m (13 000 ft). Greatest depth (off the Sunda Islands): 7450 m (24 442 ft). In December 2004 a major undersea earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami which affected large areas of the ocean as far away as east Africa, and killed an estimated 226 435 people. Area: about 73 556 000 sq km (28 400 000 sq miles)

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Indian Ocean Cultural  

1. Third-largest ocean (after the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean), extending from southern Asia to Antarctica and from eastern Africa to southeastern Australia.

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Etymology

Origin of Indian Ocean

First recorded in 1580–90

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Indian Ocean

Nigerian oil magnate Aliko Dangote is planning to build a refinery across the bay from a 700-year-old trading port on the Indian Ocean coast.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Iran has targeted other British bases abroad during the war, including Akrotiri in Cyprus and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

China too has a major base here, its largest military presence on the Indian Ocean and recently upgraded.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

The Indian Ocean has increasingly behaved differently from what would normally be expected based on conditions in the Pacific, a change that researchers have linked to climate warming.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026

They apparently did not arrive until the first millennium A.D., long after their domestication in Asia, because they had to wait for large-scale boat traffic across the Indian Ocean.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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